During its early years, Rusconi's growing national channel started its programming at noon, with a segment dedicated to children, during which various animated shows (particularly western cartoons) were broadcast, as well as successful original television series such as Star Trek, then in the early afternoon, air-time was given to region-specific broadcasts, later restarting the national broadcast with more television series and a mid-afternoon children's programming block called Bim Bum Bam, which offered numerous cartoons and animated series over the years, mostly American imports, such as The Smurfs, Snorks, Count Duckula, Police Academy, Iznogoud, Inspector Gadget, Batman: The Animated Series, Spiff and Hercules, and Alvin and the Chipmunks among others.

The network also offered plenty of air-time to sport programs dedicated to soccer, boxing, basketball and motor racing, including Andrea De Adamich's Grand Prix.

Primetime hours on Italia 1 were dedicated to predominantly American imports such as Falcon Crest, Kojak, The Big Valley, Project UFO, and Mork & Mindy.

On 23 April 1982, an official agreement was made between Gruppo Rusconi and the American network CBS for technical assistance and program sharing.

[citation needed] On 6 September 1982, Rusconi signed a collaboration agreement with Silvio Berlusconi, the owner of Canale 5, mainly focusing on a common policy for the management of advertising limits but also concerning the communal use of high frequency networks and the sharing of some programs.